Overview

Video games are the most complex software on earth. They combine real-time 3D graphics, physics simulation, artificial intelligence, networking, and audio—all running at 60 frames per second. Game Development is the art of juggling all these systems to create fun.

Core Idea

The core idea is The Game Loop.

  1. Input: Read the controller (Player pressed ‘Jump’).
  2. Update: Move the character, check for collisions, run AI.
  3. Render: Draw the frame to the screen. Repeat 60 times a second. If you miss a deadline, the game lags.

Formal Definition

The art and science of creating video games. Key roles: Designers (Rules), Artists (Visuals), Programmers (Code).

Intuition

  • Movie: Pre-rendered. The director controls the camera.
  • Game: Real-time. The player controls the camera. The computer has to draw the world on the fly, no matter where you look.

Examples

  • Physics Engines: Havok / PhysX. The code that calculates how a box tumbles down stairs or how a ragdoll falls. It uses Newton’s laws ($F=ma$).
  • Ray Tracing: The holy grail of graphics. Simulating individual rays of light bouncing off mirrors and water. It used to take hours to render one frame; now we do it in real-time (RTX).
  • Procedural Generation: Minecraft. The world is not built by hand; it is generated by an algorithm (Perlin Noise). It is infinite.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s all fun and games: It is a brutal industry. “Crunch Time” (working 100-hour weeks) is common before a release.
  • Graphics are everything: A game with bad graphics but good gameplay (Minecraft, Among Us) can be a hit. A game with great graphics but bad gameplay is a flop.
  • Game Engines: Unity and Unreal. Tools that give you the physics and rendering out of the box so you can focus on the game logic.
  • NPC AI: Finite State Machines. “If player is close -> Attack. If player is far -> Patrol.”

Applications

  • Simulation: Pilots train on flight simulators (games). The military uses games for tactical training.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Violence: The eternal debate. Do violent games make violent kids? (Science says mostly no, but it’s complicated).
  • Loot Boxes: Gambling mechanics in games for kids.

Further Reading

  • Schreier, Jason. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. (The reality of the industry).
  • Schell, Jesse. The Art of Game Design.